Frescos of dome and ceiling in Melk Abbey Church by Johann Michael Rottmayr (1716-22) Photo by Uoaei1
Good morning,
All my life I have been taken by these few verses. I cannot remember how I was introduced to them. I cannot remember why, as a small child, they were my favorite. Maybe it was this idea of mansions. Maybe it was that Jesus was talking. Maybe that it was the promise He was coming back to take me to them. He certainly doesn’t give us a TON of information about the mansions. I want details. If we can have almost 5 verses just on how fat and disgusting Ehud the king (look it up yourself in Judges 3), then I want the beautiful of heaven.
“Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me.2 In My Father’s house are many mansions;[a] if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.[b] 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also. 4 And where I go you know, and the way you know.”
5 Thomas said to Him, “Lord, we do not know where You are going, and how can we know the way?”
6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. John 14 NKJV
Let not your heart be troubled…we fight death. We fight the knowledge that each day brings us closer. We don’t want to leave family, friends. I follow heartbreaking blogs and posts of moms, children fighting cancer. Fighting to stay on this earth. Oh, friend, I get that. I don’t know when to suggest the fight to stop. Nor should we stop fighting. Or looking for cures, solutions. Death feels unfair, like a great schism has occurred. Death never was meant to be a part of the original plan. Yet, sin entered the world and here we are. Let not your heart be troubled. How can Jesus utter these words? He knew what He was about to face?
you believe in God, believe also in Me…Our belief. Bottom line, friends, hence, “to place confidence in, to trust,” signifies, in this sense of the word, reliance upon, not mere credence.(Vine’s,pisteuo). Our confidence cannot be in our circumstances ever.(Circumstance good? God is GOOD! Circumstances bad? Where is God?) If we have learned nothing during our life as a Christian, then we face the death of a loved one or our own death, this truth will be lost. Jesus calls for us to trust what we cannot see. Faith. Place our trust in Him. As He has saved us, held us in life, He will hold us through.
In My Father’s house are many mansions…this very phrase has brought me many the daydream. I’ll admit it. When I sat with my grandma as she died, I thought about this verse so often. I brought my husband’s hymnal to her bedside and sang to her. Hymn by hymn I sang to her. We were both very agitated the first day as she no longer was able to get out of bed and lost the ability to speak. So, I brought the hymnal and began to sing. I’ll be honest. I don’t have the best voice. The words of the hymns took over.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MLBTiHgNJdc
Peace. And when came the time for Jesus to come for her, I’ll never forget the experience, friends. We fear what we do not understand. We fear because we do not know. I was reading Psalm 23 to her. Her breathing was becoming more and more irregular. Whether I knew a presence in the room because I knew Jesus was about to hold her hand and mine no longer, I’ll never know. The palpable presence of heaven touching earth was in that bedroom that afternoon. As I spoke each phrase of Psalm 23, I let her know, I told her, it was okay to go, that I loved her, I would miss her, but that we would be okay. I felt the heaviness of holiness in the room.
What puzzles me about those feelings, friends, is that He is with me all the time. His presence never leaves me. Never leaves you. So we fight and fight to put a pause button on death, as many of the authors of our Bible eloquently speak (however BRIEFLY) on heaven, Jesus calls us to not be troubled. To trust in God, trust also in Him. Your life, and your death, are in His most capable hands. Is there any better place for them to be?
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